NEWS

Farmers in Donegal are urged to attend a meeting on the Common Agricultural Policy in Letterkenny next week. The meeting will take place on Monday the 9th of March and is part of 14 regional information meetings on CAP. Minister of State at the Department of Arts Heritage and the Gaeltacht and FG TD Joe McHugh is encouraging farmers to go along to the Radission Blu Hotel at 8pm. The aim of the meeting is to provide local farmers with information on future requirements in relation to the Basic Payment Scheme under Pillar 1 and Glas Scheme under Pillar 2 ...
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Plans for a major “Shop Local” awareness campaign in Sligo are underway for the month of March. A Sligo Councillor is calling for the County Council to support the campaign in an effort to boost the local economy. Independent Councillor Marie Casserly raised it at a meeting of the County Council yesterday. She says by shopping at local shops or supermarkets instead of the big chain stores, consumers keep their communities from becoming “ghost towns”: https://soundcloud.com/oceanfm/councillor-marie-casserly’
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Councillors in Sligo and Leitrim are hitting out at the lack of funding for local roads. Last month Fianna Fail Leitrim Councillor Mary Bohan highlighted her concerns about the new criteria for allocating funding for local roads. At a meeting of Leitrim County Council this week, she raised the issue again stating that local Government can now decide to allocate more to areas in the county with larger populations if they see fit to do so. At a meeting of Sligo County Council this week, Independent Councillor Margaret Gormley raised the issue saying that class three roads are in very ...
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An American woman who says she met Graham Dwyer online claims he spoke to her about travelling to the US to rape and kill her. Darci Day was giving evidence via video link from the US on Day 29 of the Foxrock architect s murder trial and she also said he’d mentioned Elaine O Hara during their chats. She spoke about visiting adult websites where she would talk about fantasies she had about dying. She said she met Graham Dwyer online in 2011 and said they would talk about rape and murder fantasies. She said Graham mentioned Elaine O Hara ...
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A member of Donegal Action for Cancer Care has called for commitments given during a meeting with the Health Minister on Friday to be submitted by letter to the group. Agreements reached during talks to safeguard cancer services at Letterkenny General Hospital were welcomed by Leo Varadkar last week. The talks, which which were also attended by Senior Members of the Saolta University Hospital Group focused on addressing the current challenges facing the cancer care unit at the hospital. It was agreed that the application for a General Surgeon would be submitted by the end of April and that two ...
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Midlands Northwest MEP Marian Harkin is urging the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the quality of water in the region, amid concerns over contamination due to fuel laundering. According to Ms. Harkin, recent private tests conducted by the Sunday Independent showed extremely high toxic pollution of drinking waters in eastern border counties. The Independent MEP says that fuel laundering plants are being uncovered all border counties, most recently in Donegal, and that consumers need to be informed of any potential threat to their drinking water supply. She’s calling for the EPA to immediately publish the results of the samples of ...
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A Status orange Snow-ice Warning for Connacht is still in place this morning as heavy snow showers battered the North west overnight. Further wintry showers of rain, hail, sleet and snow are expected until 6pm this evening with motorists advised to be cautious. In Sligo and Donegal Gardai have advised drivers to be careful on all secondary routes , while most main routes are passable at this stage. No major incidents have been reported in Leitrim. Flights from Knock Airport are currently running to schedule , however some flights from stansted were diverted to Shannon this morning. Passenger are advised ...
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Sligo has the highest commercial vacancy rate in the country, according to new research published this week. The study carried out by GeoDirectory shows that commercial units left vacant in the county increased by .5% from 2013 to 2014. In the last quarter of 2014, the national figure stood at 12.8%, compared to 16.5% in Sligo. Elsewhere the lowest commercial vacancy rate was recorded in Kerry with 9.1%. Meanwhile in Donegal and Leitrim the number of units now empty increased slightly by .7% and .2% respectively.
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Work is expected to start on a new bio-marine facility in Killybegs in Co. Donegal this summer creating around fifty construction jobs in addition to the seventy being created at the company itself. The company, Bio-marine Ingredients Ireland Ltd, has issued a statement confirming that Donegal County Council approved planning for the project to go ahead. It’s a major jobs boost for the small Donegal village and the company says it’s a significant step forward for the €40 million project which they submitted for planning last July. Work is now expected to start on the seven acre site at Stoney ...
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The CEO of Sligo County Council has emphasised his intention to keep all library and motor tax facilities in the county open. Ciaran Hayes told last evening’s meeting of the Council that there still were ‘a few hurdles to overcome’ in securing these services. Mr Hayes said the decision on the future of the libraries at Ballymote, Tubbercurry and Sligo, and the motor tax offices in Tubbercurry and Sligo would be made in the course of discussions with staff and unions. But he said the future of the libraries and the motor tax offices was dependent on the Council’s financial ...
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